THE TOWNS:
FAIRMONT COALFIELD
Another coal field focusing on the thick Pittsburgh seam of coal (and Redstone, Sewickly, and Waynesburg), the Fairmont Coalfield has been shipping coal
since the 1850's, and was a source of coal to the Union Army during the Civil War. I am under the impression that some of the coal in the eastern portion
of the coalfield has been considered a metallurgical coal, though not as good as the Pittsburgh coal around Connellsville, PA. Moving westward the coal morphs into steam coal only. Some maps show the area around Philippi as a seperate coalfield, but Conley's "History of the West Virginia Coal
Industry" lumps it in with the Fairmont Field. This coal district was the setting for the worst coal mining disaster in
American history - the Monongah mine disaster. There were 362 workers of that mine killed in an explosion in 1907. The Monongahela River is navigable above Fairmont, and coal has been
barged from the Fairmont Coalfield to Pittsburgh region and beyond. Other means of shipping coal from the Fairmont field were the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, Pittsburgh & Lake Erie Railroad, Western
Maryland Railroad, and the Monongahela Railway. After the Consoldiated Coal Company merged with the Fairmont Coal Company, Consol was and continues to be the dominating coal
company in this region. Coal is still being mined in the 21st Century at Consol's Loveridge, Robinson Run, and Blacksville No. 2 mines, and Patriot Coal Company's Federal No. 2 facility,
and the Sentinel Mine, among others.
THE TOWNS: